Assorted Questions

[JordanB21]

To all of those readers who read through my list of questions, thanks.

Recently it seems like my battery's ability to hold a charge while driving or at idle it'll drop down to about 12 volts, could a failing negative ground be causing this? Sometimes, possibly after hitting bumps it will return to the center voltage area which is considered around 15 volts.

If this is the issue, how easy is it to replace the negative battery terminal wire? I don't see why it would be hard, but I'm not a mechanic of any kind.

I have my fan adjusted to kick on pretty early, it keeps the coolant levels extremely cool, the needle stays around the N in normal (which I know it's not a reliable means to tell temperature), could this be causing me to run rich at all if it isn't getting warm enough?

I'm sure the answer to this question can be found on the internet but I'm going to ask anyways; my headlight and turn signal on the left side are both extremely dim, the turn signal light no longer illuminates in the gauge cluster and it indicates something is wrong by blinking fast, ideas of what is wrong there?

Is it easy to adjust my headlights to not be staring at the ground anymore, it's becoming more and more dangerous to drive at night because of this, I plan to use some guide I saw over on another forum but just wanted a heads up.

Has anyone here experience visor light and/or domelight electrical failure, I believe they're all on the same circuit. If you have, and you've fixed it, where did you find the issue?

There's also a large amount of slop and play in the steering wheel, nearly an inch of dead space. Again, yes I could just google it, which I will do some research along with posting this thread, but I would like some input nonetheless.

What is the best way to cut down on road noise? Opinions tricks and so forth? I have a very rattly interior as well which kills me inside when I take girls on dates, so how can I prevent the passenger air bag from shaking and creating noise, the stereo bezel from creating creaky noises, and overall prevent the transfer of motion from the road.

Finally, I've read that a lot of the creaky noises from the front end comes from worn ball joints and tie rods, would this help at all with the slop in my steering wheel? Should I just go to the parts store (advance, auto, o'reilys, and so on) for tie rods and ball joints, or should I shell out the money for some Moogs off ebay? Is the ball joints and tie rods something a novice like myself could do?

Tomorrow is my day off and I plan to address as much as I can to make my car more bearable on the road

 

[5.0 Ford Guy]

The interior stuff is a no brainer. Take the stuff apart and address the issues. Replace broken parts for ones salvaged from junk yards. If you have a junk yard that will allows you to salvage your own parts make sure to grab extra fasteners. If your car was previously owned it's hard telling what was removed and replaced while leaving out fasteners. If you don't have one of these pic-a-part junk yards there is always eBay.

Most interior items just pop out, but may have a couple screws holding them in place. Tell me which parts you need to remove and I can tell you the safe way to remove them. The stereo bezel has two screws going straight up under the radio. Then it has I believe 6 push pins holding it in. The thing that causes it to rattle near the top is there are a couple tabs molded into the top that holds the bezel in. These are often broken causing the bezel to rattle.

The console screws get loose in the arm rest area. Remove the arm rest and storage box to access screws below to tighten them. There are also a couple console screws under the shifter bezel. I have yet to see these be loose in any car I have taken apart.

Some of the interior parts are interchangeable from the 94-98 and the 99-04 Mustangs. While in the junk yard take the time to compare items.

Road noise can be taken care or with some Duramat or Brown Bread underlayment. This stuff is popular in stereo shops. A good source is ebay or Amazon. I have two huge rolls of Brown Bread. It's amazing at sealing doors to turn them into nice speaker enclosures. http://www.brownbread.eng.net/
It also helps deaden interior noise.

The steering slop can be a number of things. The rag joint on the steering shaft can go bad. The rack could be getting sloppy. And the tie rod ends can be loose. These would be the things I would look at first. Changing the rack and/or tie rod ends will require an alignment. You can take the car to a shop for an estimate and they will usually tell you what is bad. If you do this do the right thing and let them do your alignment.

I have never adjust the headlights on an SN Mustang, but on every other car I have done it on it's been fairly simple. Pull the car up to the garage door and adjust until you get them aiming straight.

 

[JordanB21]

The interior stuff is a no brainer. Take the stuff apart and address the issues. Replace broken parts for ones salvaged from junk yards. If you have a junk yard that will allows you to salvage your own parts make sure to grab extra fasteners. If your car was previously owned it's hard telling what was removed and replaced while leaving out fasteners. If you don't have one of these pic-a-part junk yards there is always eBay.

While I was at the junkyard I realized how easy it was to remove interior pieces, the car was previously owned within the family, but past mechanics have done shotty work throughout the car. There's a local salvage yard that I plan to pull the dash out of since it's this really nice deep black they used in 03'. I believe it's the same mounting points as in our car, so it shouldn't take any modifications (I hope). The only difference would be I would have to reuse my old gauge cluster bezel for defroster and I would lose the dash clock, which doesn't fit in with my blue glowing dash anyways.

Most interior items just pop out, but may have a couple screws holding them in place. Tell me which parts you need to remove and I can tell you the safe way to remove them. The stereo bezel has two screws going straight up under the radio. Then it has I believe 6 push pins holding it in. The thing that causes it to rattle near the top is there are a couple tabs molded into the top that holds the bezel in. These are often broken causing the bezel to rattle.

The stereo bezel I actually have removed many times before, I think the fasteners are just broken at this point, but I read somewhere that I can use a rubber spray on the back of the bezel to eliminate this rattle.
I'm planning on removing the dash, which I found this write up on doing that: http://poisnus.com/files/heater_core_replacement.html#_Toc193016800
Removing all interior panels, removing the seats, front and back.

The console screws get loose in the arm rest area. Remove the arm rest and storage box to access screws below to tighten them. There are also a couple console screws under the shifter bezel. I have yet to see these be loose in any car I have taken apart.

There's no rattle coming from here, and I'm just assuming it's good to go since I actually swapped out the original center console for one with cup holders and went over those two lower screws.

Some of the interior parts are interchangeable from the 94-98 and the 99-04 Mustangs. While in the junk yard take the time to compare items.

That's my biggest fear, I'm hoping they're 'all' interchangeable being that I'm using a new edge interior as the donor car for most upgrades. My interior is falling apart. The only issue I've actually ran into though is that I can't find matching midnight black (or whatever the color scheme is) door panels for the interior swap. Also, does anyone know if the electrical interior harnesses are the same between sn95 years? As in I need the whole harness from the electrical door locks to whereever they may go inside the dash as mine are suffering from electrical failure

Road noise can be taken care or with some Duramat or Brown Bread underlayment. This stuff is popular in stereo shops. A good source is ebay or Amazon. I have two huge rolls of Brown Bread. It's amazing at sealing doors to turn them into nice speaker enclosures. http://www.brownbread.eng.net/
It also helps deaden interior noise.

awesome, thanks. Any particular trick to laying sound deadening on slopes or interior pieces that you or anyone might know of?

The steering slop can be a number of things. The rag joint on the steering shaft can go bad. The rack could be getting sloppy. And the tie rod ends can be loose. These would be the things I would look at first. Changing the rack and/or tie rod ends will require an alignment. You can take the car to a shop for an estimate and they will usually tell you what is bad. If you do this do the right thing and let them do your alignment.

I removed my first steering column while at the salvage yard, so the rag joint doesn't seem too hard to replace anymore. Tie rods more than likely need to be replaced so that's in the plan as well. I assumed I would need an alignment anyways.
If the rack is sloppy, does that call for replacing the whole rack?

I have never adjust the headlights on an SN Mustang, but on every other car I have done it on it's been fairly simple. Pull the car up to the garage door and adjust until you get them aiming straight.

Sounds like a great way to do it, thanks for the guidance thus so far!

As I get work done or do things I'll post pictures to try and make this thread a bit more interesting. Sadly I can't get out to the salvage yard till monday or tuesday since I work a double today, and I work till 5 tomorrow. And now I have college started on monday too.